Table of Contents

Random Walk

Realizing LlGO
by Jane Dietrich
How a huge instrument to detect gravitational waves survived its growing pains and now nears completion.

Learning from a Tragedy: Explosions and Flight 800
by Joe Shepherd
How Caltech joined the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation.

Mesmerism and the Introduction of Surgical Anesthesia to Victorian England
by Alison Winter
How professional jealousy, not altruism, led to the widespread use of ether and other chemical anesthetics.

Books — The Meaning of It All by Richard P. Feynman; Managing Martians by Donna Shirley
by David Goodstein and Al Hibbs

Obituaries: Robert W. Oliver

Faculty File